on which mental growth depends is whether frustration is evaded or faced. Encountering a painful state of mind, does the individual immediately engage in one or more of numerous defence mechanisms readily available for the purpose of getting rid of awareness of the frustration, or, is there an attempt to remain open to it – to tolerate it – to think about it?”

The mind grows through exposure to the truth. The foundation for both mental development and truth are emotional experiences.

“What if some day or night, a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sight and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence – even the spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. - Read More